Have a Gay Old Time/Advertising

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Examples of Have a Gay Old Time in Advertising include:

  • This trailer for Gentleman Jim, a 1942 film about the boxer James J. Corbett raves that the title character "made old San Francisco gayer" and "always did his best work in the clinches". After all, he was "the most fabulous figure of old San Francisco" and this is the "gayest picture" of the decade.
    • he's also got "blarney on his lips" and "can lick any man in the world", apparently.
  • The trailer of The Great Race calls the film the gayest comedy in the world.
  • "Weird" has changed its meaning a bit through overuse of the word in advertising media. Originally, it meant something more along the lines of "scary" and "supernatural", and has since been watered down to "sort of generically eccentric". That's why you occasionally see old comics and pulps with names like Weird Tales or Weird Mystery.
  • Some examples never bother to change with the times. The Golden Gaytime is an ice cream bar that's still proudly displayed in Australia. Much beloved of backpacking Brits with Facebook accounts.
    • Parodied in Pulp Sport, where occasionally, the (male) loser to the coin toss had to dress as a promotion girl and walk around offering people the ice cream. "Would you like a Gaytime?"
      • Why parody when the jingle, which is still played in ads, in Australia, today, states "It's so hard to have a Gaytime on your own!"
      • Not to mention the front of the box feature the words "4 chances to have a gay time!"
  • The trailer for Broadway Melody of 1940: "It's BIG as BROADWAY and TWICE AS GAY!"
  • From a 1947 Jester Wools advertisement for colorful wool sweaters: "I've robbed the Rainbow to make you GAY".
  • Circa 1960, Battersea Funfair (which incidentally was an amusement park, not a funfair as such, but we won't go into that) advertised itself as "London's Gay Resort".
  • Gay Boy Boot Polish.
  • There used to be a London coach-hire firm called Gaytime Travel. Presumably, they were perfect for outings.
  • The 1941 musical comedy film All-American Co-Ed was billed as "the season's gayest musical". It probably doesn't help matters that the movie's plot centers around a young man who infiltrates an all-girls school Disguised in Drag.
  • Let's not forget AYDS. "Why take a diet pill, when you can enjoy AYDS."

Woman 1: Marge, I see you've lost weight. have you been dieting?
Marge: [Smiling] No, I have AYDS!

  • Cockburns is not pronounced the modern way, and is not the kind of product one might think it to be if it were pronounced that way. (What that kind of product might be shall now be left to your imagination, where it may be infinitely worse.)
  • Here's a 1970s spot for a Mego board game called Ball Buster, in which you "try and bust your opponent's balls."
  • A 1908 soap ad asked "Have you a little fairy in your home?"
    • Fairy Soap is still around. One of Proctor & Gamble's most popular international brands. The Little Fairy ad could still be seen in the 1970s.
  • A Kool-Aid commercial from the 1950s has a mother saying, "You can give your youngsters a lot of pleasure with Kool-Aid." Needless to say, "giving someone pleasure" has a very different meaning nowadays...
  • This commercial for a boat brand called Johnson tries to make it sound like the boat is part of the family. That still gets across, but it occurs to one that "Johnson" may have just been a name at the time...
  • One designer posting at Clients From Hell had to deal with a client who wanted a new sign for the restaurant owned by his family. It would proudly bear the slogan his grandfather created back in the day: 'You'll love the taste of our wieners.'
  • As this review points out, Mr. Bucket was poorly advertised.
  • This film from Nestle's anthology promoting wellness features a Filipino student participating in a declamation contest using "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear. Wait until around 5:50, where the adults are coaching him over and over again on the proper way to say "Pussy", or rather, "What a beautiful Pussy you are!".
  • There's Bigg's Yellow Label Shag from the days when a 'shag' was a tobacco product. Lasts and satisfies, indeed.
  • There was a short-lived television ad in Canada for a beer that "hits the back of your throat like a golden shower." That was rather quickly changed to "hits the back of your throat like a cold shower." Almost as quickly as the change was made, the ad was dropped.
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